What is the future of geothermal energy in Canada and is Alberta particularly well positioned?

We started Terrapin Geothermics a year and a half ago with the belief that the market for renewable energy in Canada is expanding rapidly and that we need to recognize the need for baseload renewables.

Even in Alberta’s latest renewable auction, all 600 MW of electricity went to large wind projects, and wind’s intermittent nature is a significant grid management challenge. Over the next three to five years, a market for baseload renewables will significantly develop and geothermal is one of the most intelligent ways we can fill that gap. While some Canadian provinces such as British Columbia, Quebec and others have a great hydro resource they can tap into, Alberta and Saskatchewan have low hydro resources. So we see a market opportunity in pioneering a stable baseload form of power generation that also taps into Alberta’s legacy abilities in drilling, reservoir engineering and reservoir management. We are very optimistic about the future of this industry and are happy to be one of the first private developers pushing aggressively for its development.